"thneed" meaning in English

See thneed in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈθniːd/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-thneed.wav Forms: thneeds [plural]
Rhymes: -iːd Etymology: Coined in 1972 by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel in the children's book The Lorax. Head templates: {{en-noun}} thneed (plural thneeds)
  1. A useless product which is advertised as being needed by everybody, but which in fact no one needs. Wikipedia link: The Lorax
    Sense id: en-thneed-en-noun-esIyORk8 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Coined in 1972 by Theodor \"Dr. Seuss\" Geisel in the children's book The Lorax.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "thneeds",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "thneed (plural thneeds)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2000, David Kumar, Daryl Chubin, Science, Technology, and Society: A Sourcebook on Research and Practice, page 221:",
          "text": "Do You Really, I Mean REALLY, Need a Thneed?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Jonathan Lethem, The Fortress of Solitude, page 361:",
          "text": "I needed orange juice, a toothbrush, a blood transfusion, a Bloody Mary, Abigale Ponders, Leslie Cunningham, a Thneed, someone to watch over me, a miracle every day—anything but a moment of truth between myself and Zelmo Swift.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Shauna Springer, Marriage, for Equals: The Successful Joint (Ad)Ventures of Well-Educated Couples, page 12:",
          "text": "Call now—the remarkable 'thneed' is available only while supplies last...”",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A useless product which is advertised as being needed by everybody, but which in fact no one needs."
      ],
      "id": "en-thneed-en-noun-esIyORk8",
      "links": [
        [
          "useless",
          "useless"
        ],
        [
          "product",
          "product"
        ],
        [
          "advertise",
          "advertise"
        ],
        [
          "need",
          "need"
        ]
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "The Lorax"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈθniːd/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-thneed.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/91/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-thneed.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-thneed.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/91/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-thneed.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-thneed.wav.ogg"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-iːd"
    }
  ],
  "word": "thneed"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Coined in 1972 by Theodor \"Dr. Seuss\" Geisel in the children's book The Lorax.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "thneeds",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "thneed (plural thneeds)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms derived from fiction",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Rhymes:English/iːd",
        "Rhymes:English/iːd/1 syllable"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2000, David Kumar, Daryl Chubin, Science, Technology, and Society: A Sourcebook on Research and Practice, page 221:",
          "text": "Do You Really, I Mean REALLY, Need a Thneed?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Jonathan Lethem, The Fortress of Solitude, page 361:",
          "text": "I needed orange juice, a toothbrush, a blood transfusion, a Bloody Mary, Abigale Ponders, Leslie Cunningham, a Thneed, someone to watch over me, a miracle every day—anything but a moment of truth between myself and Zelmo Swift.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Shauna Springer, Marriage, for Equals: The Successful Joint (Ad)Ventures of Well-Educated Couples, page 12:",
          "text": "Call now—the remarkable 'thneed' is available only while supplies last...”",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A useless product which is advertised as being needed by everybody, but which in fact no one needs."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "useless",
          "useless"
        ],
        [
          "product",
          "product"
        ],
        [
          "advertise",
          "advertise"
        ],
        [
          "need",
          "need"
        ]
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "The Lorax"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈθniːd/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-thneed.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/91/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-thneed.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-thneed.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/91/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-thneed.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-thneed.wav.ogg"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-iːd"
    }
  ],
  "word": "thneed"
}

Download raw JSONL data for thneed meaning in English (2.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-10-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (9f93753 and c1a3a36). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.